Court Denies GOP Effort to Re-Institute Voter Caging/Suppression

Says Republicans likely tempted to 'keep qualified minority voters from casting their ballots'...

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On the road and short on time, so forgive the lack of background… Politico tells the story — though they fail to use the word “caging” because, well, it doesn’t make the GOP look so great, and that’s what the main interest of Politico seems to be in just about everything they do. They do, however, liberally use the Orwellian phrase “ballot security” instead, as the GOP no doubt appreciates.

These grafs from Politico, summarizing the RNC’s rejected argument for moving to throw away the national consent decree they were forced to sign in the 80’s, after getting busted caging minority voters from the voter rolls (illegally suppressing their vote) are rather amusing…

The DNC countered that the RNC was exaggerating the danger of voter fraud and said the potential for such fraud is outweighed by the risk of voter intimidation efforts by Republican groups, pointing to a recent decision by the New Jersey court that the RNC had engaged in illegal voter challenges as recently as the 2004 presidential election.

The RNC contended that the consent decree had been interpreted too broadly and made it tougher for Republicans to ensure an even electoral playing field. Plus, it said it had no incentive to intimidate minority voters, pointing to its own election of Michael Steele, who is African-American, as chairman, and asserting that Obama’s election meant existing voting rights laws would be adequate to protect minority voters without the decree.

U.S. District Court Judge Dickinson Debevoise also seems to have found the argument laughable as well, pointing out in his decision that:

the appointment of minority officials within the RNC has not coincided with an end to racially polarized voting. Rather, minority voters continue to overwhelmingly support Democratic candidates. As long as that is the case, the RNC and other Republican groups may be tempted to keep qualified minority voters from casting their ballots, especially in light of the razor-thin margin of victory by which many elections have been decided in recent years.

One victory for the RNC in the judge’s ruling, however, is that the consent decree will now be sunsetted in eight years. Furthermore, only the DNC themselves will be allowed to bring a complaint under the decree when the RNC next attempts to cage voters — and they certainly will.

[DNC Chairman Tim Kaine] called the ruling “a victory for all Americans who believe that every citizen should have the right to vote and have their vote counted. It also represents a resounding repudiation of the Republican Party’s trumped up claims of voter fraud.”

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Reader Comments on

Court Denies GOP Effort to Re-Institute Voter Caging/Suppression

8 Comments

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8 Responses

  1. 1)
    karenfromillinois said on 12/2/2009 @ 4:07pm PT: [Permalink]

    in ogdensburg district 1,

    “, the electronic vote count on Election Night was short by 39 votes, or 12.8% of the actual total of 305. Either these were initially counted as blanks, or not counted at all, or some combination of the ”

    12.8 % not being counted by the machine,that is unacceptable,besides removing citizen oversight they plainly DO NOT WORK

    http://www.gouverneurtimes.com/...e&id=8461 :first-the-impossible-now-the-improbable-in-ny-23&catid=60:st-lawrence-news&Item id=175

    i think we are missing a big chance to explain to the public why electronic vote counting is not acceptable

    dr hayes has proven mathmatically that 12% and 8% of the vote were not counted in 2 dif precincts…peops should be able to understand this

  2. 2)
    Robin Gibson said on 12/2/2009 @ 6:48pm PT: [Permalink]

    Sadly the DNC does not protect our right to vote, even when election fraud is shown to them on a silver platter. We found GOP paid for election fraud in LA county, voters’ signatures forged on their false registrations filed by YPM, a GOP operative group. Even with obvious forgery, it was not important enough for the D party to do anything about. Not even a civil suit.
    And those ballots in Ohio from 2004, still not counted….
    very sad to have to rely on the DNC. They haven’t even replaced the ……. in the EAC yet have they?

  3. 3)
    Chris Hooten said on 12/2/2009 @ 9:06pm PT: [Permalink]

    I truly apologize that this is not related (except the last part) to this thread, but that picture of Brad on his homepage under “software geek” is hi-larious. (the one with long curly hair.) You guys should check it out. Sorry Brad 🙂 (www.bradfriedman.com)

    I don’t want to undermine the importance of the court victory, though. Those caging bastards got caught, and now they want to do it again!

  4. 5)
    Floridiot said on 12/3/2009 @ 5:14am PT: [Permalink]

    I don’t visit the Politico site much but do they usually shut down the comments when someone making a comment might have more info on the subject that could be detrimental to the Goopers? 😛

  5. 6)
    majii said on 12/3/2009 @ 12:29pm PT: [Permalink]

    I know the GOP tries to disenfranchise people of color in the voting process. Karen Handel is the SOS here in GA, and for the first time in 37 years my name was removed from the GA voter rolls. I’ve voted in every national and state election since 1972, and I was shocked to find that I was not on the list of registered voters in 2008. Because of blogs like this one I checked the database before the election and changed it before the election. BTW, I am African American. I also wonder how many other people of color had their names removed from the registered voter list in their states.

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